A teacher and apparent Black Lives Matter activist is expected to become the Seattle teachers union’s president despite allegedly abusing one of her students, The Seattle Times reported Monday.
Ibijoke Idowu-Holiday is a special education teacher at Rising Star Elementary School. However, Seattle Public Schools chief of staff Rev Redmond told The Seattle Times in an email that Idowu has been on paid leave since December and is under investigation for child abuse.
Despite this, Idowu-Holiday was elected president of the Seattle Education Association (SEA) with over 58% of the vote, according to the May 1 election results.
SEA did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment concerning the allegations against Idowu-Holiday.
The allegations originate with the parents of a “partially verbal” 3rd grader at Rising Star who has autism, The Seattle Times reported. A complaint alleged they “noticed bruises the size of adult fingertips” on his arm last October, which they claimed their son attributed to Idowu-Holiday by “using visual aids.” The complaint also reportedly alleged that his therapist saw her “throw a marker” at his head that December.
In response, police sent a statutory referral to the King County prosecutor’s office on May 6, The Seattle Times reported. The office’s spokesperson, Casey McNerthney, told The Seattle Times that police usually identify the case as a statutory referral “when they do not believe they have evidence for prosecutors to charge a crime.”
Idowu-Holiday did not immediately respond to a DCNF request for comment.
The Seattle Times also reported that many parents who reached out to them in Idowu’s defense said they had “black and brown” children who felt “nothing but kindness, love and educational rigor” under the instructor.
Running for SEA president was not Idowu-Holiday’s first political venture. “You may know Ibijoke Idowu-Holiday as the brain behind the protests popping up in Renton and West Seattle,” NUOW reported in July 2020 amid the George Floyd protests.
During one protest, Idowu-Holiday reportedly marched through downtown Renton, Washington with a megaphone in her hand to “call out each business that did or did not stand up for Black Lives Matter,” according to NUOW.
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